Correlations Between Test Anxiety and Self-Determination Among Introductory Biology Students

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a psychological framework concerning human motivation and personal growth. It holds that when the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met, people are more likely to be driven by intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation in achieving goals. In this study, we looked at 12 sections of an introductory majors’ biology class to see if weekly participation in a student-led classroom activity would increase measures of SDT constructs, leading to increased intrinsic motivation and decreased test anxiety. We used previously validated scales to assess test anxiety, engagement, needs satisfaction, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. Our data show a strong inverse correlation between engagement and test anxiety, and a strong negative correlation between needs satisfaction and test anxiety. This study provides further evidence supporting the idea that psychological measures associated with SDT are correlated with student test anxiety. While we did not find any association between the activity and the measures studied, the fact that Basic Needs Satisfaction scores are inversely correlated with test anxiety supports the conclusion that fulfilling students’ need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence can be associated with reduced test anxiety.